


Place

by thepsychicclam



Category: Bones (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-03
Updated: 2011-08-03
Packaged: 2017-10-22 04:09:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/233595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepsychicclam/pseuds/thepsychicclam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zack begins work and tries to find his place. Written for the <a href="http://1sentence.livejournal.com/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://1sentence.livejournal.com/"><b>1sentence</b></a> theme challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Place

_Air_  
The air inside the lab was cold, but it was Zack’s first day and he was afraid to ask Dr. Hodgins for his lab coat, so he rubbed his hands together and sucked it up like a good grad student.

 _Apples_  
After lunch on his fourth day of work, Hodgins tossed Zack an apple (which fell to the floor because he didn’t catch it) and as Zack bent to pick it up said, “You’re gonna kill yourself with all that crap you eat.”

 _Beginning_  
 _Maybe they’re all beginning to like me_ , Zack thought the first night Angela invited him to stay after work and gave him his own beaker filled with alcohol.

 _Bugs_  
Hodgins was the bug guy, Dr. Brennan was the Bones expert, Angela was the graphics girl, and Zack didn’t know exactly what he was.

 _Coffee_  
Zack jumped, startled and bleary-eyed from an all-nighter at the lab, when Hodgins sat a steaming cup of coffee beside his elbow at 5:30 am.

 _Dark_  
The lab was dark and Hodgins said, “Man, let me give you a ride home so you don’t have to worry about the Metro,” but Zack declined because he didn’t want Hodgins to see the kind of place he lived in.

 _Despair_  
He should have felt despair when his landlord kicked him out because he had nowhere to go, but instead he felt relieved that he didn’t have to return there ever again.

 _Doors_  
“When one door closes, another door opens,” Angela said, but Zack didn’t understand clichés and instead took it literally because he just opened the door to the tiny apartment above Hodgins’ garage.

 _Drink_  
Zack didn’t like to drink, because he knew what alcohol did to a body, but he kept staying week after week when Angela, Hodgins, and Dr. Brennan drank after work in the upstairs lobby (and not just because Hodgins gave him a ride home); he didn’t quite understand why Angela finally insisted he sit on the couch with her and Hodgins, but knew it must mean something.

 _Duty_  
Even though Agent Booth was clearly less intelligent than he was, Zack still liked him because he was good at investigating murders and lived by a sense of duty – something Zack (even if it came from growing up in such a large family) could understand.

 _Earth_  
They were knee-deep in soft earth, Zack looking for bone fragments and Hodgins taking samples, when Hodgins said, “Let’s go get some dinner whenever we get finished with this.”

 _End_  
Zack usually didn’t concentrate on the end of a day at work – because around the bones and instruments and equations he felt at home – but he wanted the day to end so he could leave and go on his social interaction with Hodgins.

 _Fall_  
After dinner, he sat alone above the garage, making lists on a legal pad and trying to logically explain his feelings when he realized that he must be experiencing what people referred to as _falling for someone_.

 _Fire_  
A fire and seven unidentified bodies and Zack didn’t think about the lists on the legal pad and his discovery even though he and Hodgins worked side-by-side on the case for almost a month.

 _Flexible_  
Zack had learned that working at the Jeffersonian meant he had to be flexible, and he’d never felt so alone as the night he called his mother and told her that he couldn’t come home for Christmas because there’s a body that needed identifying.

 _Flying_  
Zack got uneasy flying and was glad when Hodgins sat beside him on the flight; Hodgins lent him his iPod during take-off, but let him keep it until after they land.

 _Food_  
Zack and Hodgins sat in a pizza parlor in their sixth after work interaction; Hodgins seemed to like it when Zack argued with him, so Zack argued because he really liked the way it made Hodgins smile.

 _Foot_  
Zack shifted to the right to give Hodgins more room when he felt his foot against his; he wasn’t quite sure what it meant when Hodgins shifted to the right after him, foot to foot.

 _Grave_  
Zack knew he made a grave error when he asked Hodgins why he’d been standing so close to him; Hodgins told him he was paranoid and didn’t come near him for weeks.

 _Green_  
He told his sister one night, “I think I may be gay,” and she replied, “Could be a reason it never worked with any girls, but remember little brother, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side,” and she hung up before he could ask her what she meant.

 _Head_  
Zack always had a lot going through his head – like the quadratic formula, the name of each bone and muscle when he looked at someone, the capitals of all the countries in the world – but nothing he thought of these days could keep his mind off Hodgins.

 _Hollow_  
They were bent over a microscope, and Zack caught a glimpse of the hollow of Hodgins’ throat, and hoped Hodgins couldn’t feel the heat radiating from his face.

 _Honor_  
He learned almost everything from Dr. Brennan, honor from Agent Booth, humility from Dr. Goodman, fashion tips from Angela, and how to kiss a man from Hodgins.

 _Hope_  
After the first kiss, Zack knew it would be illogical to hope for another.

 _Light_  
The light was harsh on his tired eyes, his shoulders were tight from stooping, and Hodgins pushed the tray of bones away, placing a light hand on his back while saying softly, “Come on, Zack, time to go home.”

 _Lost_  
The kissing he could do (though he knew he needed to get better), he had studied books on all of the proper mechanics of sex, but he was lost at what to do when Hodgins kissed him behind his ear and made his entire body go weak.

 _Metal_  
Zack always liked the harsh sterility of the lab – metal, order, cleanliness, everything serving a purpose – and wasn’t quite sure when he first started calling it home.

 _New_  
Zack wasn’t new to the concept of being rejected, but he never expected it to hurt so much when Hodgins treated him like a work colleague instead of…whatever they were.

 _Old_  
They were old bones and Zack respected them, because they lasted when nothing else seemed to.

 _Peace_  
The only time Zack’s mind was at peace was when he was arms-deep in a case, doing everything Dr. Brennan asked and anticipating what she might ask later, and that’s why he was so relieved to see Booth and Dr. Brennan finally bring in another murder victim.

 _Poison_  
Alone at the lab late one night, and Hodgins was so excited he found the obscure poison that killed the victim that he shouted, did a ridiculous dance, and kissed Zack (after a month of not kissing him) right in the middle of the lab.

 _Pretty_  
He told him he used to have a crush on Dr. Brennan, and on Angela, because even though they were both so intelligent, they were both even prettier, and he replied, “Yeah, man, who didn’t?”

 _Rain_  
The rain was loud on the windows, and Hodgins said, “Man, I don’t think I’m going back to the house in that,” and even though they liked to keep to their own corners of the estate, Zack was glad when Hodgins settled back on the messy sheets.

 _Regret_  
Even though Zack missed his family back in Michigan, he had never regretted moving to Washington, DC.

 _Roses_  
Hodgins laughed when Zack gave him the rose, and Zack thought he had made some egregious miscalculation when Hodgins said, “Dude, you are so cheesy,” but then Hodgins kissed him and grabbed his hand.

 _Secret_  
No one cared if they were gay, no one cared if there was interlaboratory dating, but Zack and Hodgins kept it to themselves – and Zack thought it would feel like rejection, but instead he liked having a secret.

 _Snakes_  
He hated snakes, so Hodgins offered to go into the river instead and didn’t make fun of him like his brothers used to back home.

 _Snow_  
Snow in Michigan was different than snow in DC, because snow in Michigan didn’t have snowball fights with Dr. Brennan, Booth, Angela, Dr. Goodman, and Hodgins outside the Jeffersonian, what Booth called “snow Angelas” as she tried to teach Dr. Brennan how to make snow angels, or melting snowflakes clinging to curls as they drank hot chocolate off to the side while Booth and Angela tried to build a snowman while Dr. Brennan and Dr. Goodman fought over which sticks made more believable arms.

 _Solid_  
Hodgins was solid, his body firm and defined from muscle unlike his own which was hard only because he could feel the bones underneath his pale skin.

 _Spring_  
Hodgins would spring dirty things on him when he was least expecting it, like whispering, “I’d like to bend you over that counter” in the lab with Dr. Brennan nearby, playfully slapping his butt while Zack was bent over some bones, kissing him and cupping his crotch when they were both in the supply closet getting trays for Dr. Brennan, and nonchalantly placing a hand on his thigh in the backseat of Booth’s SUV.

 _Stable_  
“This is the most stable relationship I’ve ever been in,” he told him one day, and he just smiled, because he knew that it wasn’t pathetic to him, but perfect.

 _Strange_  
“You’re so strange,” Hodgins laughed when Zack told him his fantasy, but he had no problem finding glasses and a pipe to play the perfect professor.

 _Summer_  
Summer meant late nights on the roof of the garage apartment, a six-pack of beer, arguments over the placement of constellations, the origin of the universe, life elsewhere, and the two of them sliding sweat-covered against each other in the sticky heat.

 _Taboo_  
Zack knew it was taboo, but he wanted to share everything with Hodgins, and Hodgins stared at him in horror before saying, “You can’t be serious; the fucking Spice Girls?”

 _Ugly_  
“I still don’t understand,” Zack admitted one night in bed while laying face to face with Hodgins, “I’m so ugly and you’re so…” but Hodgins placed a hand over his mouth, shaking his head, and leaned toward him saying, “Oh Zack, you’re anything but,” before kissing him hard.

 _War_  
They all had their private wars, and Zack’s was trying to remember that he belonged in a group of people just as intelligent, but more socially appealing than he ever would be.

 _Water_  
He watched Hodgins swim in the small lake, kicking up water every time he stroked, and realized he had never been happier in his entire life.

 _Welcome_  
“Thank you,” Zack whispered one night against his bare stomach, and Hodgins replied, “you’re welcome,” like he understood.

 _Winter_  
Winter meant freezing in the car on the way to work, and Zack had never loved Hodgins so much as he did the morning of the first frost when Hodgins started the car fifteen minutes before they left, brought him an extra jacket, scarf, and pair of gloves from the house, and handed Zack a cup of steaming coffee.

 _Wood_  
He was chopping wood at home in Michigan with his brothers and thought that Booth would be really good at this, and Angela would love his older brother, and Dr. Brennan would enjoy watching such a large family interact, and Hodgins would love discussing (more like arguing) politics with everyone in his family when he realized, with a smile, these people in Michigan weren’t the only family he had.  



End file.
